Miners rebut claims

The minerals industry yesterday hit back at Treasury secretary
Ken Henry
’s comments on the role of the industry in saving Australia from recession.

“The comments from the architect of the federal government’s supertax on mining, grossly misrepresent the recent role played by the sector in Australia’s recovery," said the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia’s chief executive,
Reg Howard-Smith
.

He described as “an unwarranted attack" Dr Henry’s comments that resource companies had been quick to shed jobs during the recent crisis.

“Companies went to great lengths to ensure workers were redeployed to other operations where possible – had this not occurred the losses would have been much greater," he said.

He was responding to Dr Henry’s comments before a senate committee that claims the sector saved the nation from recession were “curious".

“In the first six months of 2009 in the immediate aftermath of the shock waves created by the collapse of Lehmann Brothers, the Australian mining industry shed 15.2 per cent of its employees.

“Had every industry in Australia behaved in the same way our unemployment rate would have increased from 4.6 per cent to 19 per cent in six months," Dr Henry said.

Mr Howard-Smith also took issue with Dr Henry’s statement to the committee that “in the first six months of 2009, mining investment collapsed", saying the minerals and energy sectors had “provided a lifeline for WA finances".

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The Minerals Council of Australia released a report from consultants Deloitte that concluded: “The rapidly improving strength of Australia’s mining sector during 2008-09 played a key role in shielding Australia from some of the worst consequences of the global financial crisis."

The report says employment in the sector grew by 15.3 per cent in 2008-09 compared with 1.1 per cent in the overall economy. Investment grew by 17.6 per cent compared with 5.1 per cent in the overall economy.

The report came as
OneSteel
CEO
Geoff Plummer
warned that the 40 per cent resource tax would delay construction projects.

“The government is changing the rules and taking away from our Australian shareholders," he said.

“What we’re seeing is that there are lots of people in the construction space talking about putting things on hold or scaling things down, particularly in the resource-based states. The impact is at best it will be delayed, in practice there will be a number of projects that won’t go ahead."